Sales Forecasting Missing The Human Factor

Words: Kerushan Govender

Missing revenue forecasts can have dire consequences for a publicly-traded company, not the least of which is a plummeting share price and despondent shareholders. Historical data suggests that, on average, the drop in value for North American companies who miss their sales and revenue forecast is 16.59%, which could run into millions of dollars.

“The problem is that most forecasting products depend solely upon a robotic algorithm to determine outcomes, which is insufficient in complex sales scenarios where human relationships underpin the transaction,” says Kerushan Govender, a former Microsoft executive with a strong academic background in mathematical statistics and decades of practical expertise managing sales teams across 80 countries.

Nearly four out of five sales organisations are unable to reach an acceptable 90% forecast accuracy and by the time they realise the forecast is incorrect, it’s often too late in the quarter to take corrective action. “While there have been scientific advancements in other vocations, very little actual science has been introduced into the field of selling,” says Govender. “To increase accuracy you need a tool based on scientific data and the human factor.”

Govender’s invention, which has a provisional patent, has earned him the International Thought-Leadership for Innovation award and attracted the attention of several major investors, such as billionaire and venture capitalist Bob Duggan. “In today’s tech-driven world, restoring and developing the human element amidst the mass of electronic transactions is necessary to humanity’s next quantum leap,” said Duggan. “Helping public technology companies solve one of their biggest problems by isolating the human factor and focusing on the empowerment of the individual, has set the standard for how we will have to think about problems going forward.”

Until recently Govender was Area Head: Public Sector, Small-to-Medium Solution and Partner Group, for Microsoft in the Middle East and Africa. He was charged with driving corporate revenues, improving customer satisfaction and acquiring new market share for Microsoft in the region, as well as leveraging existing resource footprint within the Middle East and Africa to forge and drive a new strategy that generates market share in the healthcare, education, and government sectors across the region. He is routinely invited to address business audiences across the globe to showcase his methods. He is a guest speaker for East Africa’s largest private business school and is often invited to address business audiences in Asia, Europe and the Americas.